Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb Collection on the Occupy Wall Street Library
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Abstract
Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb are librarians who were active in the Occupy Wall Street Library. The Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb Collection on the Occupy Wall Street Library (dated 1998-2014) consists of materials created and collected by Taylor and Loeb. The collection documents the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment at Zuccotti Park in New York City; the creation, activities, and belongings of the OWS Library; the political activities of OWS and affiliated protests; and the library's eviction from the park by the New York Police Department (NYPD). Materials in this collection include ephemera, correspondence, administrative files, protest fliers, zines, and realia – some of which are directly related to the library's eviction by the NYPD in November 2011. The collection also includes a small amount of materials on librarianship, including an article and conference programs.
Biographical Note
Jaime Taylor is a librarian who was active in the Occupy Wall Street Library. Taylor has worked as a librarian in both the public and private spheres. Her professional interests include the racialized and gendered nature of librarianship; the rethinking of librarian education; flattening institutional structures beyond the norm; and library technology and management's intersections with neoliberal capitalism.
Biographical Note
Zachary Loeb is a librarian who was active in the Occupy Wall Street Library. Prior to earning his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, Loeb earned an MA from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University; and an MSIS from the Information School at the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked for several libraries including the Center for Jewish History; the New York Public Library; and the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.
Historical Note
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Library, also known as the People's Library, was founded in September 2011 by Occupy Wall Street protesters in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park and was led by librarian Betsy Fagin. Over time, the People's Library received books and resource donations from readers, private citizens, authors, and corporations. Musician Patti Smith also contributed a tent to the library, which was named Fort Patti in her honor, and was used as the library's primary structure until it was destroyed in November 2011.
On November 15, 2011, officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) and employees from the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) forcibly evicted everyone in Zuccotti Park. Following a decision ordered by New York City officials and the Park's owners (Brookfield Office Properties), NYPD and DSNY employees loaded the library's approximately 5,500+ book collection into garbage trucks and moved them to a sanitation site. Although New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stated the library's collection was safely stored at the sanitation site and could be retrieved at a later date, library representatives later learned most of the library's collection and equipment had been destroyed, damaged, or lost.
In May 2012, the OWS Library sued Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty in federal court. In April 2013, the city was ordered to pay $366,700 to the People's Library for the raid.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series:
Series I: Administrative, Legal, and Conference Materials
Series II: Ephemera, Realia, and Protest Materials
Series III: Publications
Within each series, materials are listed in alphabetical order by format and then by title.
Scope and Contents
The Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb Collection on the Occupy Wall Street Library (dated 1998-2014) consists of materials created and collected by librarians Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb. The collection documents the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment at Zuccotti Park in New York City; the creation, activities, and belongings of the OWS Library, also referred to as The People's Library; political activities of OWS and affiliated protests; and the library's eviction from the park by the New York Police Department (NYPD) on November 15, 2011, which lay the groundwork for the subsequent lawsuit against the city of New York.
Materials in this collection include administrative files, correspondence, and legal resources; ephemera and posters; protest materials; examples of library holdings and zines published by local artists; publications, both from within the OWS movement and outside; and realia including a broken laptop and cashbox, which are directly related to the library's eviction by the NYPD in November 2011. The collection also includes a small amount of materials on librarianship, including an article by Taylor and Loeb; and conference programs.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb Collection on the Occupy Wall Street Library; TAM 775; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Jaime Taylor and Zachary Loeb in November 2018. The accession number associated with this gift is 2021.024.
Appraisal
On October 30, 2023, Curator for Tamiment Collections Shannon O'Neill and Head of Archival Collections Management Weatherly Stephan discussed the nature of the damaged electronics within this collection. Electronics in the collection include a Kindle, a laptop, and a radio receiver. This technology was used to serve the Occupy Wall Street Library, also known as the People's Library. All of the electronics and hardware presently in the collection sustained damage during the NYPD's raid and eviction of the People's Library on November 15th, 2011. As such, they are inoperable. Going forward, these items serve as artifactual evidence of the destruction of the Library. We will retain them for this purpose; however, the technology is not meant to be utilized and no data that may possibly exist on the technology is retrievable.
In March 2025, attempts were made to image two optical discs using FTK Imager, however, these attempts were unsuccessful and these discs were removed from the collection. One optical disc containing a video was imaged using IsoBuster, however due to the copyright nature of the video's content, this disc was removed from the collection. Copies of The Nation, International Socialist Review, Labor Notes, Time Magazine, Village Voice, am New York, The Catholic Worker, The Indypendent and Occupy! Gazette -- all of which are dated between 2011 and 2012 -- were removed from the collection due to online accessibility from the publisher's individual websites.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused in archival boxes. Loose paper materials were rehoused in archival folders in their existing order. Born-digital items were identified and inventoried, but were not forensically imaged, analyzed, or described at this time. New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity of the content.
In March 2025, the collection was arranged and described by an archivist. Some materials were rehoused into new archival folders. Titles reflecting the contents of folders were created when not present. Related materials were grouped together both physically and intellectually. Oversized materials folded within legal folders were unfolded and rehoused into appropriately sized folders and flat boxes. After two copies of paper materials were kept, additional copies of materials were removed from the collection and returned to the donor.
A damaged encyclopedia and a torn Occupy Wall Street poster were sent to New York University's Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department for stabilization and rehousing.
Materials in the collection were described at the collection and series level; and inventoried at the file level.
